Over at the CBC Books website, in honour of Canada Day, they’ve compiled a list of the all-time 100 Novels That Make You Proud To Be Canadian. And guess what? My first novel, Lost Girls is on it!
Aside from the terrific honour at having my book on the list with The Greats, I’m proud in a slightly different way.
It’s the feeling that my story – a made-up thing about ghosts and a cokehead lawyer and a monstrous Lady of the Lake who pulls swimmers down into a lake’s depths – has entered people’s consciousness in unexpected and reality-reshaping ways. To think that something I’ve written has changed (however slightly) the way some might see a familiar thing – a northern lake, a neglected town – is rewarding beyond description.
Congratulations Andrew. And what I really like about this post is how you capture the essence of why you write. Being able to alter the familiar and drive people’s conscious perceptions in “reality-reshaping” ways is the pinnacle. It leaves readers with a memory, an experience. Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This in my mind holds true in writing. Placing a feeling in a reader is more powerful than the words on the paper. I don’t see a Like button here…but I’m clicking it. Congratulations again!
Thanks so much, Darryl. And well put (Angelou too!). A.
The Guardians should have been on it too!